Faculty and doctoral students affiliated with the Knight Center presented environmental research recently at the International Communication Association’s (ICA) 66^th Annual Conference in Fukuoka, Japan.
The theme of the June 9-13 conference was “Communicating with Power.”

Shannon Cruz, a recent Ph.D graduate from MSU’s Department of Communication, received a top student award from the association’s Environmental Communication Division for her study titled “A meta-analysis of the effects of political variables on environmental concern.”

Shupei Yuan, Tsuyoshi Oshita, and John Besley co-authored a study titled “Two-Way Communication Between Scientists and the Public: A View From Science Communication Trainers.” They collaborated with colleagues at the University of Texas at Austin.
Oshita also presented a paper titled “TEPCO’s Image Repair Strategies and the News Reports on the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Accident.”
Also presented was a study co-authored by Knight Center Research director, Bruno Takahashi and doctoral students Ran Duan and Tony Van Witsen and titled “Not Who You Are but Where You Are: Hispanics’ Behavioral Intentions Towards Energy Conservation.”
Takahashi also co-authored with a collaborator from Nanyang Technological University the paper “Journalists are Humans, Too: A Phenomenology of Covering the Strongest Storm on Earth.
In addition, Alisa Lertpratchya presented a paper co-authored with Carrie Cunningham, Serena

Carpenter, and Bruno Takahashi titled “A Mixed-Method Examination of the Effectiveness of Sustainability-Themed Print Media Visuals.”
Research Director Bruno Takahashi, who chairs the association’s Environmental Communication Division, moderated two panels and ran the business meeting for the division, which included the presentation of top paper awards.